Cat West, well-known for her programming skills and instructional courses, designs lighting as well. A career highlight in April was serving as lighting designer for singer-songwriter Danny Elfman at Coachella 2022. Formerly with ‘80s band Oingo Boingo, Elfman is known for his musical film and TV scores, such as “The Simpsons Theme” and others, which he performed at the festival. “I’ve been a fan since I was a kid, buying every soundtrack CD of his I could find,” she says. “Oingo Boingo was the first concert I ever went to. So, to play a small part in his devastatingly epic Coachella performance was a real honor. I may never get over the feeling I had getting to play along during those two sets.”
West also took on the role of lighting designer—for Production Designer Butch Allen— for the New Kids On The Block Mixtape Tour 2022. This was her third time to work with the band, whose “creativity knows no bounds,” she notes. “Donnie Wahlberg leads a really solid team creating a super fun performance and building the support acts into the show—just like an actual mixtape—is genius. And, if I may be so bold: Rick Astley [support act] is an absolute rock star. These two productions could not be more different, but both allowed for a lot of creative experimentation, for which I am so grateful.”
Rolling Stones at 60
Woodroffe Bassett Design created a new design for The Rolling Stones’ 60th anniversary tour, Sixty, set to roll through Europe and the UK this summer. Asking the WBD team about what to expect, Patrick Woodroffe told PLSN, “As with every other band going out on tour after two years’ absence, the challenges facing the Rolling Stones as they gear up to their return to Europe are manifold. Huge rise in all construction costs, difficulty in finding crew, very hard to book trucks and stages, [and] ongoing Covid-19 protocols that have to be adhered to when it feels like the rest of the world has stopped doing so. But the band’s production team, led by the indefatigable [PM Dale] “Opie” Skjerseth, has managed to react to the situation with imagination and understanding, and on June 1 the Stones’ Sixty tour will open in Madrid. They do so with a new drummer—Steve Jordan—to replace the much-missed Charlie Watts, a brand-new stage set designed to fit to various stages that the local promotors will supply, and a sense of energy and purpose as they celebrate 60 years on the road.”
Lighting Director Ethan Weber returns to the team, having just finished as LD with John Mayer’s Sob Rock tour with Production Designer Sam Pattinson. “I started with Keith [Richards] in 1992,” Weber explains, “so this will be my 30th year with the band. It’s always exciting to be going out there.” Also reprising his Stones role is Roland Greil as video director. Most recently, he and Woodroffe designed the lighting for Rammstein’s stadium tour that started in Europe May 12 and hits North America in August.
Music of the Spheres
Coldplay embarked on the U.S. leg of the Music of the Spheres World Tour in May, under PM Jake Berry. The production, designed by Misty Buckley and Lighting Designer Sooner Routhier, features three circular stages connected with runways, a custom laser mirror ball, and interplanetary scenic elements enhancing its celestial theme. The Lighting Director is Shaheem Litchmore.
Doing the Math
Ed Sheeran’s The 2022 + – = ÷ x Tour, pronounced as The Mathematics World Tour, launched April 23 in Dublin, Ireland. Mark Cunniffe, who says he’s been working with the pop artist since 2011, designed the production and lighting, and is creative director for the video content. Also factored in the equation are key personnel on his team: Camera Director Phil Mead, Lighting Programmer Alex Passmore, Lighting Operator Matt Jones, and Video Operator Ben Lapworth. The global stadium tour has dates set well into 2023.
Opera-ting a Flexible Tour
Ignacio Rosenberg of Lightswitch tells PLSN about the “very interesting design process” of the classical crossover vocal group, Il Divo. “We started in July [2021] ready for a U.S. tour,” he recalls. “As many artists, they had also spent the entirety of the pandemic without any revenue, so we took the chance to make a very budget-friendly show that also delivered impact. In the end we ended up under budget and it was the truck space that limited the rig size. That original show was a celebration of their new Motown album and so we had a high energy part of the show with new songs and some fantastic arrangements. Unfortunately, just as that tour was about to kick off, the Covid-19 Delta variant hit and we suspended that leg. Instead, they made up some Christmas dates in the UK where tragedy then hit, and singer Carlos Marin came down with Covid and passed away. After a period of mourning, the band and management decided to turn the existing dates into a tribute to Carlos and the show shifted again. It is now a much more somber, very classy affair. It’s gone from the original high energy, humorous show, to a Christmas show, to a tribute show. If that doesn’t exemplify a flexible design, I don’t know what does!”
Quick Cues
Eric Cathcart and Mike Grant have again teamed up to design for The Black Keys, this time for the Dropout Boogie Tour, under PM Phay “Phamous” Mac Mahon. The summer shed tour starts July 9 in North America.
Drew Mercadante of Supervoid just sent out Dan + Shay doing direct support on Kenny Chesney’s tour. “I programmed and supplied our custom built media servers, and their LD Jeff Matthews programmed the lighting,” Mercadante reports. He’s also currently programming lights for LD Charlie Santella for BoyWithUke, who is doing direct support on indie pop trio AJR’s summer tour.
Brooks & Dunn’s Reboot 2022 Tour kicked off May 5, with lighting design by Chris Lisle, directed by Andy Knighton. “It is a continuation of their Reboot tour that we originally launched last fall,” Lisle says. “It was an awesome experience to get to design for those legends!”
Keep Co-Editor Debi Moen up to date with your summer gig news. Reach her at dmoen@plsn.com
